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CUBAN AFFAIRS 




PEOPLE OF THE UNITED STATES, 



9 



BY 



AMBROSIO JOSE GONZALES, 



SEPTEMBER 1st, 1852. 



PRINTED AT THE DAILY DELTA,\\1 POYDRAS STREET. 



1853. 




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MANIFESTO 



ON 



CUBAN AFFAIRS 



ADDRESSED 



PEOPLE OF THE UNITED STATES, 



BY 
AMBKOSIO JOSE GONZALES 



SEPTEMBER 1st, 18SS. 



PRINTED AT THE DAILY DELTA, 112 POYDRAS STREET. 



1853. 

V 



1 H8^ 



54685 



o 



MANIFESTO ON CUBAN AFFAIRS 

ADDRESSED TO THE PEOPLE OE THE UNITED STATES. 



Of all the foreign questions which, for some years past, have fallen under the observationof 
the American people, there is none so little understood, and so deserving of their special con- 
sideration as that involving the independence of Cuba— an island whose close proximity, control- 
ing position, domestic institutions and commercial wants, bring home to the safety, the peace, 
the welfare and development of America, all incidents likely to bear upon her future destinies. 
It is, therefore, meet that her claims receive a proper attention,— that the acts of her sons and their 
American coadjutors, being properly appreciated, misrepresentation be silenced, and public opinion 
be righted where it has been misled. With this view I have undertaken to give a synopsis of the 
causes which in Cuba have led to dissatisfaction and open rebellion ; to advert to the character 
of the Cuban movements in this country, and of the persons connected with them, as far as the 
despotism, which still weighs upon that island, may render it prudent ; and to unfold, in self- 
vindication, the double-dealing arts of our detractors. This step I would have taken months 
ago, but for negociations then pending with Spain, involving the liberty of American citizens. 
Thus, a duty to my country, and to the integrity of Cubans, and of distinguished Americans, 
assailed by the sycophants of power, must be my excuse for placing my name before the 
people. 

The thirteen colonies of North America rebelled agairjst Great Britain for encroachments upon 
the granted rights of their citizens, and made a duty on tea and a paper impost the occasion for 
general rising. Owing to their position upon a mighty continent, and on the borders of a vast 
wilderness, they effected their emancipation, with the timely aid of monarchical European gov- 
ernments. Cuba, knowing no rights, and groaning under oppressions a thousand times more 
galling, has sought the individual aid of a neighboring republican people, heirs to the liberties 
won by the colonies, and to the destiny they were called to fulfil. Her claim to this aid is based 
upon the following grievances :— With a population of 550,000 whites, and 600,000 blacks— 
about that of Virginia — she pays in taxes and imposts the sum of twenty odd millions of dol- 
lars, or nearly forty dollars per head of her white population, irrespective of the innumerable pre- / 
datory exactions of the swarm of officials, high and low, sent from Spain to enrich themselves 
with the substance of our people. The English pay, on an average, $12 33 , the Spaniards, $9 ; 
the French, $7 50 ; the American people, $2 39. In order to support an army of twenty thou- 
sand regulars, four thousand drilled militia, an armed police or gendarmerie, and a naval force 
of four or five frigates, six steamers, one sloop, two or three brigs, and ten or twelve smaller 
vessels of war, with occasionally the Spanish ship of the line — all indispensable to enforce such 
a tyranny — and to bear the expenses of the Court of Spain and the interest on her English 
loan, the Cuban people are made to pay $10 50 per barrel on imported American flour, from/ 
50 to 200 per cent, duty on the original cost of rice, salt fish, corn, hogs for slaughter, and other 
necessaries of life. Bread is thus placed entirely beyond the reach of the poorer classes. By 
valuing some articles double or treble their original price, — salt fish, for instance, which has a 
nominal duty of thirty-three per cent., really pays, on importation, sixty-six per cent. So 
with flour, rice, corn, &o. Indigenous fruits pay an export duty of from six to seven per cent. 



■ Planters pay an export duty on sugar of two and a half per cent., and all agricultural produc- 
tions ten per cent, when gathered. Live stock pays the same duty exclusive of that of exporta- 
tion. The poor man pays $1 25 per bushel of salt, (about one hundred weight,) so indispensa- 
ble in our warm climate. The Cuban pays from six to six and a half per cent, on the value of 
any slave, town or rural property which he may dispose of, besides the heavy charges of nota- 
ries, registration, stamp paper, &c, whereby it vanishes into the government hands after a few 
sales. Stamp paper, the use of which is enforced by authority, is sold by the government at 
prices ranging from fifty cents to eight dollars per sheet ; and a man must swear to utter desti- 
tution to pay but six and a quarter cents per sheet. If from these, among other unparalleled 
exactions, which check a development and progress as essential to nations as to individuals, we 
turn our eyes to the oppressions which completely destroy the intellectual, moral and physical 
well-being of the people, what do we see 1 The government, instead of fostering education, 
discountenances it at home and abroad. In Cuba, with her immense taxation, only one child 
in every eighteen is taught how to read and write, and for this pitiful result is she chiefly in- 
debted to individual exertions. About the year 1826, a Spanish war frigate was sent to the 
United States by Ferdinand the Seventh, to take back to the Island such Cubans as were then 
receiving their education at the North. Orders were issued from Spain in 1849, prohibiting 
the education of our youths in the United States, and they have accordingly to plead ill-health 
in order to obtain a passport to this country. Cuba has not the shadow of political representa- 
tion. In 1836, her three deputies were refused their seats in the Spanish Cortes by the peninsu- 
lar members, called to that Congress by the very law which prescribed the election of our repre- 
sentatives. She is now held as a conquered province, not as the land bequeathed to us by our 
fathers, who toiled in its settlement, and gave it to usefulness and civilization. The Cuban is, 
moreover, deprived of all liberty of conscience, of speech, or of the press. The life, the proper- 
ty, the honor itself, of the inhabitants is at the mercy of the Captain-General, who, by a royal 
decree, dated May 28, 1825, and still in force, is invested with — 

" All the powers which, by royal ordinances, are granted to the governors of besieged cities. 
In consequence thereof," adds the royal mandate, " his Majesty confers upon your Excellency 
the most ample and unbounded power, not only to separate from the Island persons, whatever 
their condition rank, class, or occupation, whose permanency therein your Excellency may deem 
obnoxious, or whose conduct public, or private, may alarm you, replacing them with, servants 
faithful to his Majesty, and deserving of all the confidence of your Excellency, but also to sus- 
pend the execution of any ordinance whatsoever, or general provision, concerning any branch of 
the administration, as your Excellency may think most conducive to the interests of the royal 
service." 

This authority, superseding the law itself, has no parallel in any country. In Cuba, three 
persons cannot collect together, without being instantly dispersed. Cubans cannot assemble to 
discuss their interests, nor even to petition for relief. The Common Council of Mantanzas 
was severely dealt with in 1845, for having remonstrated with the Supreme Court in regard to 
"jxcesses committed by the soldiery against peaceable citizens of that place. A conspiracy was 
-orged by Gen. O'Donnell, during his administration of the island, and hundreds of innocent 
colored people were butchered or tortured to death, at Guines, Cardenas and Matanzas, that 
the Governor and his satelites might receive from Spain their rewards in titles and crosses. 
The slave trade is carried on for the special benefit of the Queen Mother, the Captain-General> 
and a powerful Spanish clique at Havana. Count Alcoy made in less than a year $200,000 in 
importation fees of 3000 slaves, at $51 per head. Through this horrid traffic, declared piracy 
by existing treaties, and secretly connived at by the cabinet of Madrid, it is estimated that over 
half a million of human beings have been imported into Cuba since 1826, when Mr. John Quincy 
Adams, the philanthropic President of the United States, effectually broke up, at the Congress 
of Panama, a concerted plan between Cuba and the republics of Columbia and Mexico, for the 
liberation of the former, then, as now, not only a mart for African captives, but the point 
d'appui for European despotism in America — furnishing the arsenal, the conclave, and the 
treasury, from which expeditions have been started, intrigues have been plotted, and money 
supplied to attack and invade Hispano-American republics, prop up the .lingering monarchical 



party therein, and insidiously undermine American influence, and prejudice American interests, 
as is the case in Mexico at this very clay, f While slaves and Asiatics are thus introduced, white 
colonization is discountenanced, that trie threat of a colored population may be held to the 
Cubans, while 24,000 bayonets are pointed at their breast. The Cubans have not even the idea / 
of a trial by jury. Cases are tried before the Judges of royal appointment, the venal favorites 
of the Spanish Court, who are speedily removed to make room for more hungry aspirants. The 
Captain-General himself, a mere soldier, presides, by law, over the Supreme Court of Justice. 
All offices, with the exception of a few of the lowest order, are in the hands of Spaniards. The 
law and the medical profession being over-stocked, and the former under the pervading influence 
of a corrupt system, Cubans of high intelligence and education, every avenue of distinction and 
emolument being closed to them, are constrained to discharge the duty of overseers to planters, 
machinists, &c, in order to earn a livelihood. Enlightenment is invariably with the Cuban a 
sufficient cause for suspicion, annoyance, and persecution. He is forbidden to carry arms. A 
fruit-knife is not allowed him. Even walking-canes, which from their size, cannot pass through 
a ring in the hands of sentinels at the gates of Havana, are seized and broken. The penalty 
for carrying weapons of any description is six years hard labor in the chain gangs of the penal 
colonies of Africa. The Cuban cannot have company at home without a permit, for which he 
must pay two dollars and a half, and he must be provided with a license, at the same cost, if he 
is to absent himself from town or from his home in the country. Neither can he change his 
domicile without notifying the police, obtaining a permit, and paying for the same. He can- 
not lodge any person, whether foreigner or native, stranger, friend, or relative, in his house, 
without previous notice to the police. He cannot be out after ten o'clock at night, unless ha 
carries a lanthern testifying that he is abroad. Mayors of cities are not elected by the people, 
but by the aldermen of the common councils, and under the dictation of the Spanish Governors 
These aldermen serve for life, and their offices are either inherited, or purchased from the crown 
at public auction, for prices varying according to the perquisites thereof. Thus, it happens 
that even they who should be the immediate guardians of the people, often become speculators, 
who, far from extending them protection, extort the full interest of the capital invested in the 
purchase of their offices. A permanent military tribunal, (comision militar,) tries all crimina 
offences beyond the limits of the city, and all disloyalty to the Spanish Government. It is sum- 
mary in its proceedings, and its unheard-of tyranny has been well exemplified in the case of John 
S. Thrasher. No affidavit is required in Cuba, but a suspicion or a secret denunciation, to tear/ 
a man from the bosom of his family, at any hour of the day or night, throw him into a dungeon 
there to linger for weeks or months, if it so please the authorities, and then set him free with 
the bare acknowledgment of his innocence, or send him to transatlantic exile, if though innocent 
he still remains suspicious. 

Such is our government. A hideous compound of base rapacity, wanton insult, and dire 
oppression. And to this government, worse than the tyrannic rule of Austria, are we to be 
subjected, because Cuba is, forsooth, a fertile spot, a desirable position that England covets 
monarchs protect for Spain, and her sons cannot disenthral by unassisted efforts ! And this is 
to be the Lombardy and the Constantinople of this continent, the arena for despotic princes or 
ambitious cabinets to contend upon, unless the sturdy arm of America check at once this 
evil tendency of events. 

None, I hope, will deny that our people have done much of what was possible for them to 
do, under the adverse circumstances in which they are placed, to attain the blessings of liberty. 
Men may talk of the revolutionary heroes of America, and ask why we have not commanded the 
success which they obtained. They should first compare their situation with ours. They, 
from the beginning, were free, enlightened, and linked by the spirit of association. We have 
ever been enslaved, bred in ignorance, and kept apart by the Machiavelian policy of disunion. 
They held a vast continent, and were surrounded by the wilderness. We inhabit an island, 
without the possibility of retreat for ourselves, or of access for our friends, without manifold 
dangers and excessive cost. They had a militia, were used to arms, and held them in their 
hands. We have no military force deserving of the name, are unacquainted with the use ot 
firearms, and can neither carry nor possess them. They, L with three millions of inhabitants, 



had scarcely any English troops among them. We, with but half a million, have quartered in 
our midst twenty-four thousand bayonets. They met, discussed, and resolved, printed and spoke 
and went about freely and unshackled. We cannot do one of these things. Our movements 
are watched, our thoughts are scanned, our very servants are hired by the oppressor to denounce 
us. They had on their side the fleets and armies of France, the chivalry of Europe, the financial 
aid of Spain, and the moral countenance of all nations. We have against us not only Spain, 
but that very France and England, and the menace of the blacks, the squadrons of the United 
States, and the denunciation of the republican government as pirates and freebooters, to draw 
from our feet our only plank of support, with the world against us ; the moral aid of this free 
country. We have had, it is true, and this is for the future our rainbow of promise, the en- 
couragement, the aid, and the gallant devotion of very many of the generous citizens of this 
republic ; but of what avail they could be against the leaning of their own government towards 
European policy, events have clearly shown. 

Since 1825, revolutionary clubs have existed in Cuba, under the name of Soles de Bolivar, 
and other designations. Conspiracies have succeeded each other, and arrests, imprisonments, 
banishments, and executions have invariably followed in their wake. The act of the Spanish 
Cortes, in 1836, denying the right of the Cuban Deputies to seats therein, gave the first impulse 
to the car of revolution. Narciso Lopez, the hero of our infant history, a Venezuelan by 
birth, a Cuban by adoption and affection, then the Governor of Madrid, a Major-General in the 
Spanish army, and a Senator in the Spanish Cortes for the province of Seville, resolved from 
that very day to throw his military experience, his lofty gallantry, republican principles, 
untiring energies, and iron will into the scale of Cuban freedom. He accordingly resigned his 
high position, and came to Cuba in the Company of his friend, Don Geronimo Yaldes, appoint- 
ed to the Captain-Generalcy of that Island. As long as that functionary was in power Gen. 
Lopez abstained, out of considerations of friendship, from revolutionary steps. He held, during 
his administration, the post of Civil and Military Governor of the central province of Cuba, and 
was also President of the Supreme Military Tribunal (comision militar.) On the removal of 
V aides, Gen. Lopez, no longer in office, applied himself to the work he had been preparing in 
his mind. The revolution of 1848, which brought about the emancipation of the blacks 
in the French Antilles, opened the eyes of the more indolent and supine of the Cuban 
planters to the dangers which beset them on all sides from the abolition policy of England and 
France; they joined the more patriotic ones of their own class, and with the mass of Cubans 
who dreamed of liberty for liberty's sake., formed the revolutionary party of which Gen. Lopez 
naturally became the leader. The services of a man of his qualities, of his military position, 
and popularity with the army, was, in the face of a military despotism, an important acquisition 
to the cause. The American army had, at this juncture, conquered Mexico. From Scott and 
Taylor to the merest private, laurels had been won which the Cubans would fondly have inter- 
woven with the leaves of their palms. A host of braves awaited under arms the orders to dis- 
band and return to their homes. The opportunity presented itself of obtaining the aid of 5000 
Americans to the impending Cuban revolution, when no longer in the service of their country. 
Among the Generals under the orders of Scott, W. J. Worth seemed to combine the qualities 
of head and heart — as he possessed the gallantry and the chivalry of the Bayard of the Ameri- 
can army — requisite for the acceptance of this noble trust and its successful execution. He was, 
consequently, approached, at Jalapa, by Cuban delegates. The impression made upon me in 
conversations with those most directly connected with this subject is, that he accepted their pro 
positions, contingent upon his resignation of his rank in the army. But, be this as it may, the 
troops were not disbanded in Mexico, as had been anticipated, and nothing could have been done 
while they were in the pay of the United States. About this time Gen Lopez's conspiracy was 
discovered, and he, together with some distinguished Cubans, had to seek refuge in the United 
States, against the extreme penalty of the Spanish laws. The frustration of all our plans, 
through the sleepless vigilance of the Spanish authorities, the paucity of our resources at home, 
the unbounded means of our oppressors, and the emigration of Gen. Lopez, the head and front 
of the movement, to the United States, made it evident that the revolution could not be, then 
successfully commenced in Cuba. In fact, in a certain manner, it was already in the United 



States, where most of the intelligence, the courage, and the determination then were, which consti- 
tuted its very embodiment. It was, therefore, necessary to bring it back to Cuba, like Minerva, 
steel-clad and panoplied, there to run through its subsequent stages. This is the key to our 
whole movement, and this it is that they should bear in mind who undertake to sit as judges 
of our actions. The undersigned was, under these circumstances, sent to the United States as a 
commissioner to Generals Lopez and Worth, as well as to some Cuban patriots residing in this 
country. Gen. Worth accepted the eventual command of an American army, which was to act 
in support of a small force, headed, in advance, by Gen. Lopez. For the raising of these expe- 
ditions, $3,000,000 were to be contributed by Cuba. A member of Gen. Worth's military 
family, a gentleman of high standing and social position, was requested by me to go to Cuba, 
and see for himself into the state of affairs. He returned, satisfied with the ability of the per- 
sons connected with the movement to carry out their promises, and was furnished by them with 
such plans of cities and fortifications as Gen Worth was desirous to possess. 'These facts at 
once set forth the character of the undertaking, and show it to have been in the hands of men 
of wealth, position, and responsibility; for how could otherwise a man of Gen. Worth's high 
honor and renown — how could the lamented Duncan and other equally distinguished officers of 
the American army — have given it their countenance, and even engaged in preparations for it, 
had it not received the approbation of their judgment, the encouragement of their Americanism, 
and the sanction of their integrity 1 ? The election of Gen. Taylor to the Presidency of the U.^. 
States was a severe blow to the hopes of my countrymen, as they conceived that bis party would / 
oppose any change in their political condition. The death in Texas of the generous soldier who 
hesitated not to imperil his life and military reputation in the effort to achieve the complement 
of American liberty, cast an additional gloom over their political aspirations. Those who had 
risked themselves, mainly from dread of the emancipation of slavery, seeing that matters 
were not immediately menacing, drew back, and, together with the few who still hoped for 
concessions from Spain, decrmed further action; always ready, however, to profit by the sacri- 
fices of the more consistent ones, in case their movement should /prove guccessfui. Under the 
influence of this reaction the means could not well behad foran expedition 'on a large scale; but 
on the other hand, the revolutionary spirit had visibly progressed among the masses, and from all 
accounts received from the island, a smaller force than Worth required was deemed adequate 
for the enterprise. Gen. Lopez, always unswerving and indefatigable when the liberty of Cuba 
was at stake, applied himself, in 1849, conjointly with his friends in the States, to the raising 
of 1200 men, intended as a. nucleus for our population to rally around. A portion of it was 
collected on Round Island, in the Gulf of Mexico, the remainder was to sail from New York. 
The transports for this force were the steamship Fanny, purchased in New Orleans, the pro- 
peller Sea Gull, purchased, and the steamship New Orleans, chartered in New York for the pur- 
pose. This is the first and the largest expedition raised in this country for the liberation of Cuba, 
and it is as worthy of remark, as it is meet to keep in mind, that of the $80,000 with which, ac- 
cording to Gen. Lopez' estimate, it was gotten up, not one solitary cent was procured or contri- 
buted by Americans. ~The whole was Cuban money, raised entirely by voluntary donations 
among the patriots in the United States, and in the fatherland. Here is, then, the incontro- 
vertible fact that the nucleus of the Cuban revolution — the leadership, most of the courage, the 
intelligence, the spirit, the energy, the will, and the means, which constituted its very essence 
— though originating in Cuba and though Cuban in its nature and its object, was then in the 
United States, and was from the United States to be reinstated upon its native soil. This state 
of things cannot be attributable to Cubans or Americans, but to the despotism which ejected all 
these elements, and compelled them to prosper upon foreign though friendly soil. That its 
character commended it to respect and protection from high places is deducible from the fact 
that although the proclamation of Gen. Taylor was issued on the 7th of August, 1849, the Sea 
Gull, laden with arms and ammunition, and with her complement of Cubans, was permitted to ^ 
remain untouched and unmolested in the harbor of New York until the earlier part of September ; 
that, when broken up, because of the too long delay in its sailing, not one of the Cubans was ar- 
rested, and no one, Cuban or American, was tried for participating in it, — that vessels, arms and 
ammunition were all returned to us, — that the Washington Republic, the government organ, 



published long articles, portraying the evils under which our country groaned, concluding with 
a significant declaration to the effect that a people who could endure such a tyranny were de- 
serving of it . The fact that Commander Randolph was ordered to blockade Hound Island, and 
starve the unarmed citizens encamped upon it, and that the governor and a high justice of the 
sovereign state of Mississippi, were, on the following year, dragged from their chairs of office by 
the same administration, to be tried in Louisiana, on suspicion of sympathising with Cuban lib- 
erty, only proves that some show was required in the matter, and that of all men, politicians are 
the most apt to profit by the risk of others, and to turn upon them the " stop thief" of lower 
derelictors, when success is no longer to be expected. But the antagonistic press was not satis- 
fied with the aspect of a movement which presented no object for attack. They demanded 
of the leaders to show themselves, that they might become the target for their dander and vi- 
tuperation.- This greatly contributed to the formation of a public junta, the nature and object 
of which are sufficiently explained in the following announcement : 

i( To the Editor of the Herald : 

" The undersigned beg leave to avail themselves of your widely-distributed columns, to an- 
nounce to all who may be concerned in such an announcement, that, by appointment from Gen. 
Narciso Lopez, well known in the United States as well as in Cuba, as the head of the late pro- 
jected revolution for the liberation of that Island from the oppressions and degradation of its 
present condition — they have accepted and undertaken, in concert with Gen. Lopez, the duties 
and responsibilities of a ' patriotic junta for the promotion of the political interests of Cuba.' 
Without infringing on the laws of this country by the present announcement, or contemplating 
hereafter any action which they will not stand prepared to justify before all tribunals, human and 
divine, they feel that it is alike due to their cause and their country to stand forth openly to 
meet the responsibilities which attach to their undisguised hopes, aspirations and course ; at 
the same time that they are enabled to serve as a centre for correspondence, with a view to con- 
cert with the thousands of noble spirits who, in all sections of this Union, sigh to behold the 
slavery and sufferings of Cuba, and long to contribute any aid honorably and legitimately in 
their power, for her relief. 

" This honorable trust, associating the undersigned for the purposes indicated, with the illus- 
trious patriot and chief who will preside over the junta, they have accepted as a duty not to be 
declined, profoundly distrustful indeed of their own ability or worthiness, but supported by the 
conscious rectitude of their motives, and by an unhesitating confidence in the favor of Heaven 
and in the generous sympathies of the noble and free American people. 

" Copies of the present announcement are at the same time sent to the editors of La Ver- 
dad, El Correo de los dos Mundos, Sun, and Tribune, of New York ; the Union and Republic, 
of Washington ; the Courier and Mercury, of Charleston ; the Chronicle, of Louisville : the 
Delta and Picayune, of New Orleans ; and the editors of all other papers are respectfully re- 
quested to copy it. One of the names attached is left in blank, because the gentleman indicated 
is at a distance from the city, and it is not deemed proper to make it public before the reception 
of notice of his acceptance. 

" The Junta Promovedora de los Interesses Politicos de Cuba will shortly establish itself at 
the City of Washington, to which city may be addressed, directly to General Lopez, (post paid) 
all correspondence of its friends, box 51, post office. 

" With great respect, your obedient servants, 

"AMBROSIO JOSE GONZALEZ, 
"JOSE SANCHEZ IZNAGA, 
" JUAN MANUEL MACIAS, 
" CIRILO VILLAVERDE." 

Spain could not allow this step to pass unnoticed or unpunished. It brought upon its authors 
the following proceedings of the authorities of Cuba, published in the Charleston Mercury : 



SENTENCE OF THE PERMANENT MILITARY COMMITTEE OF THE 
COUNCIL OF WAR FOR THE ISLAND OF CUBA. 

Havana, August 19, 1850. 

In consequence of the decree of Don Fulgencio de Salas, President of the Military Executive 
Committee of the Island, dated 27th Decemher, 1849, authorizing Captain Xavier Mendoza, 
Fiscal for said tribunal for proceedings ordered by His Excellency the Captain-General, against 
several individuals who had emigrated to the United States, and created at New York a Club 
under the title of "Junta for Promoting the Political Interests of Cuba," with the object of dif- 
fusing in this island and in Porto Rico their insidious intentions and avowed purpose of subvert- 
ing public tranquillity, have been occupied, and are engaged in conspiring against the legiti- 
mate government of Her Majesty, and the following persons appear accused as.members and ac- 
tive agents of said criminal association, namely : Ambrosio J. Gonzalez, J. Maria Sanchez Iz- 
naga, Cirilo Villaverde, Juan Manuel Macias, Pedro Aguero, Victoriano Arrieta, Gaspar Be- 
tancourt y Cisneros, and Cristoual Madan, on a review of the proceedings against the accused, 
and a narration thereof in the Council assembled under this date, and the accused not appear- 
ing, were judged by default. 

On hearing the report and opinion of the aforesaid Fiscal, and the verbal illustrations of Don 
Manuel Gonzalez DelValle, the Assessor of the Tribunal, the Council, taking into consideration 
the charges and proofs, has condemned and hereby condemns by a unanimous vote the following 
individuals to suffer punishment of death by garote, viz. : Ambrosio J.Gonzalez, Jose M. Sanchez 
Iznaga, Cirilo Villaverde, Juan 'Manuel Macias, Pedro Aguero ; and the following shall suffer 
transmarine imprisonment for ten years, with a perpetual prohibition of returning to the island 
and to Porto Rico, namely : Victoriano Arrieta, Gaspar Betancourt Cisneros, and Cristoval 
Madan, with payment of costs, and also the damages sustained by individuals and the State 
from the invasion of Cardenas. COUNT OF ALCOY. 

Approved, August 28, 1850. 

After the formation of the Junta, applications for enlistment were received from almost every 
State in the Union, including' California. I subjoin the answer invariably given to all, show- 
ing, conclusively, that while engaged in " promoting the political interests of Cuba," a proper 
regard for the laws of the country was foremost in the minds of Gen. Lopez and his associates. 

Sir — Your favor of- has been duly received. I am instructed to return most cordial thanks 

for your offer, and to add that, while Gen. Lopez has no immediate occasion to take advantage 
of it, should any political movement in Cuba, such as may at any time occur, demand our pre- 
sence upon that island, your co-operation, in the capacity of a free American emigrant, will be 
most cheerfully invoked. Your name has been registered accordingly, and the earliest possible 
intimation will be given to you in the event of a contingency affording the Junta an opportunity 
of availing itself of your friendly disposition. I am, &c, 

AMBROSIO JOSE GONZALEZ. - 

The establishment of a political association at the seat of Government was, in the meantime, 
made the subject of a correspondence between the Spanish Minister at Washington and the 
Secretary of State, which was published in the Washington Republic. The movement was 
then a political one, to the positive knowledge not merely of the men who had a hand in it, but 
of those who, en the death of Gen. Taylor, succeeded them in power. We shall see, presently, 
how it was gratuitously divested of this character by the Chief Magistrate of the Union, and 
how the power of Europe was invited against it, as against the deed of enemies to the human 
race. 

In consequence of intelligence receivedfrom Cuba, General Lopez and myself left Washington 
for New Orleans, in the Spring of 1S50, with the intention of raising an expedition from the 
West and South-west. The General remained in Mississippi, while I proceeded to New 
Orleans, where through the exertions of my friends, the Hon. John Henderson, L. J. Sigur, 
and others, I succeeded in forming that which is known as the Cardenas expedition. The private 



10 

means of the Cubans having been exhausted by the previous effort, necessity compelled us to 
resort to American generosity. About forty thousand dollars were furnished for the cause by 
Gen. Henderson, mostly the earnings of a life, of usefulness and integrity. Bonds had been 
struck in New York, in the expectation of raising, among its wealthy merchants, the means 
for an expedition ; but the class, I am sorry to say, who have lately presented a princely dagger 
to the black Emperor of Hayti, could not be persuaded to risk a dollar in behalf of Cuban free- 
dom. They were given in New Orleans to our friends, who received them, I have the positive 
conviction, more as a testimonial of their services to the cause than with a view to sudden 
wealth. 

The contributors to the Washington Monument cannot be said to have no admiration of the 
character, nor reverence for the memory of the Father of his Country, because, perchance, they 
receive from its committee an engraving testifying to their patriotic donation. Gen. Hender- 
son, from the "West, where he was born, rowed his passage to New Orleans in a flat-boat, and 
by dint of his industry and perseverance, rose to eminence at the bar, and to the honorable dis- 
tinction of Senator in Congress, from his adopted State of Mississippi. Of such materials specu- 
lators cannot be made. They are more likely to be found, with less principle to palliate their 
actions, among the revilers of our movements- The result of the Cardenas expedition is known 
to the public. Among its consequences was the trial of General Henderson, by three successive 
juries. They were, on the first, equally divided ; on the last they stood one for conviction and 
eleven for acquittal — a proof that extreme care had been taken to guard against any violation 
of the neutrality laws of 1818. In April of the following year, 1851, the third expedition, that 
of the Cleopatra, was gotten up in Georgia by the undersigned, J. L. O'Sullivan, Esq., of New 
York, having had charge of the purchase of the transportation, and the superintendence in that 
city of other elements. All the efforts of the government to convict this gentleman proved fruit- 
less. The result of his trial again made it obvious that the law had been respected, if the 
wishes of the administration had not. As to myself, although I have surrendered voluntarily to 
the authorities of Georgia, and given bonds to the government, lam as yet untried — a sufficient 
vindication that the pains taken by me, in guarding against any infringement upon the statute, 
made the interest of Spain still more hopeless at the South. The means for this expedition 
were chiefly derived from Cuba, whose patriotic daughters, the women of Havana and Puerto 
Principe, without distinction of class or station, generously added the offering of their jewels to 
the contributions of their brothers and husbands. About $12,000 of Cuban bonds were taken 
in Georgia, by gentlemen of the highest respectability and political position, among whom I 
will only mention the editor and proprietor of the leading whig organ of the State, because of 
the republication in that sheet of an abusive article from the National Intelligencer, against 
those whom it designated as speculators in Cuban bonds. After the discomfiture of the expedi- 
tion of April, 1851, by the seizure of the Cleopatra in New York, I found it necessary to recruit 
my health, impaired by the incessant labor and anxious solicitude of the preceding months, 
for, under the circumstances, I was unequal to the duties of an active summer campaign, Gen. 
Lopez encouraged me to do so, with the understanding that I should support, with a force 
of from 1500 to 2000 men, the expedition which in the expectation of arising in the island, he 
was preparing in New Orleans. " Curese V. con esmero," said he, in his last letter to me ; 
"para que vaya a apoyar a su amigo de corazon." 

After leaving, in obedience to his instructions, all the elements which I had collected in 
April, in the hands of one of our friends, for their furtherance to the island, as Gen. Lopez 
might direct, I set out for the Virginia Springs, the warrant issued for my arrest, not allowing 
me to visit those of Georgia. While in the mountains, the intelligence reached me of the 
rising of the patriots of Puerto Principe and Trinidad, the exaggerated accounts of which, pub- 
lished in the papers of the United States, conjointly, with the deception- of Spanish agents, 
unquestionably precipitated the departure of the General in the steamship Pampero. I at once 
returned secretly to Georgia, where, owing to the derangements in the engine of said steamer, 
already returned from the island, I was sorry to find men, arms and ammunition, which, in my 
Calculation, were then on their way to Cuba. Without interfering with that movement already 
in the hands of others, I at once proceeded to raise the promised reinforcement. The disastrous 



11 

news of the fate of the General, and his brave Cuban and American associates reached me in 
Charleston, while in the successful prosecution of this labor. 

I have thus entered into details somewhat personal to me, from the necessity of answering the 
malignant insinuations of some of the friends of Spain in this country, who wondered, and per- 
haps regretted, that I and other Cubans were not included in the massacre of August, and Sep- v 
tember 1st. I will add, for the information of these gentlemen, that I was severely wounded at 
Cardenas, thereby claiming the honor of being the first Cuban who has ever bled in battle in 
the assertion of his country's rights. With the details of the Pampero expedition I am com- 
paratively unacquainted. I am, however, convinced that the means therefor were generously 
furnished, mostly, if not entirely, by L. J. Sigur, Esq., of New Orleans, formerly editor of the 
Daily Delta, who asked nothing for a contribution which deprived him of his all, but a pro- 
mise of General Lopez simply to refund it to him. Against such men the fangs of slander must 
file themselves. "With the Pampero expedition ends the last of four efforts, made in three suc- 
cessive years, for the disenthralment of Cuba. If not immediately successful, they have pro- 
duced one of the results anticipated by those who have, in its attainment, sacrificed position, 
home, and friends, and incurred the obliquy of the malignant and misinformed, to wit : The 
replanting of the Cuban revolution upon its native soil, where it is now rapidly advancing to a 
successful issue. Having run through its preparatory stage, it is to Cuba that its future ones 
should be looked for. 

The defence of the acts of Gen. Lopez and his Cuban and American friends, would remain 
incomplete were I silent. 1st — On the abusive comments upon the sale of Cuban bonds; and 
2nd — On the denunciation contained in Mr. Fillmore's proclamation of April, 1851. On the 
subject of the bonds, the National Intelligeecer — an English hot-house for the exotic weed of 
monarchy, without whose fostering care and covert protection they could neither withstand, 
in republican America, the incongeniality of climate, nor resist the sturdy tramp of freemen— 
the paper ever to be found on the side of any interest antagonistic to the American — has been 
especially severe. It has called these bonds a fraud, and their purchasers speculators, while it- 
has characterized the movement they were issued for as "a desperate enterprise." The reader 
may have noticed with what comparatively small means four costly expeditions have been 
raised, precluding the possibility of gain by the projectors. Had they speculated by it, they 
would have felt inclined to establish a paper at Washington, in defence of some well-paying 
government, rather than risk their lives against it. Had such been the case, they would have 
commenced by issuing the bonds, and not by spending their own money, as they actually did, in 
the first and largest expedition. Then, if the enterprise was desperate, there certainly was more 
generosity than speculation in those Americans who furnished the means for it. If the chances 
for failure were as ten to one, as represented, then the bonds were really worth ten cents on the 
dollar, and no more. But, in the belief of the Intelligencer, there was no chance whatever. 
Then, even ten per cent, was a disinterested donation. 

Supposing the chances to have been fair of establishi ng a republican government in Cuba — 
and this supposition could not be made without assuming, independently of circumstances 
favorable to the issue, that the great majority of her people were willing to throw off the yoke 
of Spain — then it was exceedingly proper to invite a neighboring republican people, even as 
they invited a distant monarchical one, to lend them their aid; and any pecuniary sacrifice of 
those who risked their capital in what might possibly become "desperate," should have been 
amply remunerated by the country which, in the event of success, would not only have acquired 
the invaluable blessings of liberty, but have saved millions by the change. Money has at all 
times been raised in a like manner for similar or analagous purposes. Hungary issued bonds; 
so did Italy, and every country and people who has stood in need of it. Bonds were issued 
in Texas, and sold at one time as low as five cents on the dollar. This debt — strange coinci. 
dence — has been assumed by this republic. So may, probably, be at some future day, the 
Cuban loan. There was once a certain fund raised by certain rebels, called continental money. 
How much was it worth 1 Were not those who raised it the most moral people upon the face of 
the globe! Money has recently been contributed in the United States for the Irish, the Hun- 
garians, and the Germans, to far greater extent and with far greater publicity than it has been 





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12 

for Cuba; and yet, neither the leaders in the Irish movement, Kossuth, nor Kinkel, have been 
held to bail, insulted and persecuted as the Cubans and their friends have been. Whence this 
difference 7 The reader will readily perceive it in that which exists between an Irish and a 
German vote of millions and a Cuban vote of not as much as hundreds. It is also to be found 
in the want of equilibrium which has existed in late cabinets between Northern and Southern 
political influence. 

I enter reluctantly into the examination of that unfortunate document, the proclamation of 
Mr. Fillmore in regard to the Cleopatra expedition. 

An American in feeling and education, a naturalized citizen of this republic, in the folds of 
whose sisterly embrace I long to see my native Island, I am unwilling to show disrespect to the 
chief magistrate of my adopted country. But the honor of the Cuban exiles is as dear to them 
as Mr. Fillmore's can be to him. I have reverenced Mr. Fillmore for his resistance to political 
fanaticism; but inasmuch as in our own case he has deviated from his wonted course to pander 
to the feeling pervading the masses which were to greet him in Western N. York on the occasion 
of the great Erie Railroad celebration, I am justified in saying, that he who, if a common citi- 
zen, would have been subject to a suit for libel before a court of justice for his denunciation of 
our expeditions as "adventurers for plunder and robbery, which must meet with the condemna- 
tion of the civilized world," has, as President of these United States, elevated a vulgar aspersion 
to the magnitude of a national infliction, the shafts of which, outranging their intended mark, 
have sadly told against a neighboring people, and the true interests of this republic, as guarded 
by the policy of President Monroe, by virtually calling upon the intermeddling powers of Eng- 
land and France to lend their moral and physical aid in dispiriting and overawing our oppress, 
ed population, and exerting a European police in the waters of America. 

It is set down, moreever, in this State paper, that these expeditions "are instigated by 
foreigners, who dare make our shores the scene of their guilty and hostile preparations against 
a friendly power, and seek, by falsehood and misrepresentation, to seduce our citizens, especially 
the young and inconsiderate, into their wicked schemes." Now, it happens that of the four 
members of the "Junta" three are Americans by education and naturalization, and the fourth 
is also, probably, by this time, a citizen of the United States. It is no more their fault that 
they have been compelled, by Spanish despotism, to seek aid in republican America, than it 
was Franklin's to have sought it in monarchical France. In prejudging our movement as 
"guilty," the Executive undertook to say what was not its province, but that of the judicial 
tribunals of the land to decide, after weighing the evidence; and they, at the North, the South, 
and the West, have uniformly given their verdict against his assertion. That "falsehood and 
misrepresentation" were used, is falsehood by the record. No assertion was ever made by the 
Cubans, connected with this movement, the truth of which they do not, at this moment, stand 
ready to prove. 

It is the New York Express, an Administration paper, — the editor of which is a friend of the 
Spanish Minister — that published the famous letter from Santabuco, in the mountains of Cuba, 
representing the patriots as 2500 strong. It was this paper that published another letter from 
one of the Bahama Islands, giving false information with regard to certain American vessels 
seen on their way to reinforce Gen. Lopez. It was with the Tribune, Ledger, and other Ad- 
ministration papers most arduous in publishing those false or exaggerated accounts from the 
Island which contributed, with the perfidious statements of Spanish emissaries, to precipitate 
the departure of the too confiding Lopez, and caused him to land where he could be most spee- 
dily annihilated. If " falsehood and misrepresentation" had been used, the men who enlisted 
for the first would not have joined in the second expedition ; those who fought and bled at Car- 
denas would not, after going through so many perils and hardships, have volunteered to fight 
and bleed again at Las Pozas and Cafetal de Frias, and on their return from their captivity in 
Spain, would not have publicly expressed their willingness to embark anew, if necessary, in the 
service of the same cause. If " falsehood and misrepresentation" had been used, and if full con- 
fidence in our integrity did not exist, neither Henderson and Sigur, who have been impoverished 
by their generosity, nor the persons who contributed in Georgia to the Cleopatra expedition, 
would have remained ever since the steadfast friends of ourselves and our cause, ready to 



b 

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13 

serve it again with unabated interest. The American character is too enlightened in its nature 
and too just in its purpose, to be obscured by misrepresentation, private or official, or to be turn- 
ed, by political leaders, from its conception of right. Finally, if " falsehood and misrepresen- 
tation" had been used, would the authors of it have risked their lives or even surrendered them, as 
Lopez and scores of Cubans did, upon the same field and scaffold as their generous associates 1 
It is, indeed, impossible, to read this proclamation without being forcibly reminded of that all- 
pervading political calumny, so justly deprecated by General Cass during his late speech in the 
Senate. If any of our agents in this country (and of this fact we are not aware) have appealed 
in any instance to the grosser senses of the people, in order to induce them to join our move- 
ments, such action has been wholly unauthorized. It is the weak point in secret expeditions 
that the leaders thereof have to rely entirely upon the moral character of those whom, in some 
instances, they necessarily employ on a very short acquaintance — deprived, as they are of the 
means of coercion and repression, which an organized government commands. How much 
more excusable should any irregularity be, under such circumstances, than the frauds and the 
plunder but too often perpetrated upon the people by members of the latter % 

The character of our transactions has been sufficiently established by the facts which I have 
mentioned in connection with Gen. "Worth and the expedition of 1849, and by the very sentence 
of the Spanish Government, in which death is visited upon us, not for " robbery or plunder," 
but for " creating at New York a club under the title of ' Junta for Promoting the Political 
Interests of Cuba,' with the object of diffusing" — reads the sentence — "in this Island and 
Porto Rieo, their insidious and avowed purpose of subverting public tranquillity, and for being 
engaged and occupied in conspiring against the legitimate Government of her Majesty." It 
has been established by the history of the events of 1850 and 1851, pending which, both at Car- 
denas and Las Pozas, the persons and property of the inhabitants were respected and protected, 
as became tho friends of the people. Guards were placed at Cardenas at the doors of jewelers, to 
protect them from any irruption of the populace ; and no reward would the officers accept for what 
they justly deemed the performance of their duty. Nothing was used, not even wine, that was not 
paid for. The negroes even, who coaled the Creole, were paid for their work. It was established 
by the magnanimous conduct of Gen. Lopez in setting free while still in sight of Cuba, Gov. Ce- 
ruti, a relation of Count Alcoy, and the officers of the Spanish garrison of Cardenas, on the 
simple condition that they should protect the lives of such of our men as had imprudently re- 
remained at Cardenas, as well as in providing, in the United States, for fourteen months, for 
the subsistence and welfare of the privates of the Spanish garrison who joined him at that place. 

The contrast between General Lopez and his antagonists may be drawn from the fact that 
the four Americans taken at Cardenas were, notwithstanding the promise of the liberated gov- 
ernor, inhumanly put to death, — among them, a lad of fifteen. It was so well established in 
the last expedition that a Spaniard went from Vuelta Abajo to Havana, to beg the Captain. 
General for the lives of some of the captives, in consideration of the humane and generous treat- 
ment of his family. But were all these proofs wanting, and had not the expeditionists been for the 
most part men of standing and respectable families in the United States, and were not Ameri- 
cans well acquainted with the disaffection, — nay, the inveterate and implacable enmity to Spain 
which pervades the length and breadth of Cuba — common sense, no greater than falls to the lot 
of the dullest savage, would convince any one that a force of four or five hundred men would 
not venture itself upon an island occupied by a million of souls, and garrisoned by 20,000 regu- 
lars and 4000 drilled militia, with the object of " plunder and robbery" — nay, without the most 
positive conviction, ill-founded, if you. like it, but sincere and evident as light, that they would 
be joined by the people they came among ; and this very just presumption assumes the propor- 
tions of a certainty, when, as in the case of General Lopez, they send back their transports, 
and trust to Providence and a principle for life and success. It was reserved for Americans of 
the nineteenth century, — for the Government of a people that is to regenerate the world, — to re- 
present as criminal and abominable what ancient and modern history has recorded as praise- 
worthy . Thrasybulus immortalized himself by leading an expedition against the thirty tyrants 
of Athens, and Aratus and Pelopidas encircled their brows with kindred laurels. Gen. Pepe 
has in our own time attempted the overthrow of despotism in Italy, — Mina, in Mexico,— Mi- 



14 

randa, in Colombia, with the connivance of Madison and the material aid of Great Britain. 

So much for liberty ! 

On the other hand, Flores once attempted to subvert, with the aid of Spain and England, 
the self-given government of a republican country, and is at this moment on his second effort to 
establish therein one more congenial to those two powers. Barradas led against Tampico an 
expedition raised in Cuba by the Spanish Government, and paid for by exactions upon our own 
people. Louis Napoleon, the protector of Cuba to Spain, invaded by Strasburg, the France 
which he now rules, and from the shores of England conducted the paltry expedition which 
resulted in what goes by the name of the echauffouree de Boulogne ; and yet it does not appear 
that these men, who have conducted " hostile" expeditions against " friendly powers" for their 
ambitious ends, and not for the welfare of the people, have so far met with such a " condemna- 
tion of the civilized world," as to be stigmatized as pirates and buccaneers. That Gen. Lopez 
was unsuccessful, should be no reproach either to himself or to the people of Cuba — it was merely 
the result of circumstances. Bolivar made several trials before he established liberty in Colum- 
bia, and Bruce made nine attempts for the independence of Scotland. The great Napoleon 
himself, who, from Elba landed three hundred men in France, and promply seized the reins of 
governmeat, was, with same intellect, and when at the head of half a million of the best troops 
the world has ever seen, defeated in Russia by the premature fall of the thermometer and the 
torch of an incendiary. Gen. Lopez's movement upon Cardenas was a judicious one. He 
meant, by a coup de main, to surprise that place in the dead of night ; take immediately the rail- 
road to Matanzas, only thirty miles distant ; seize that important city in the same manner] and 
with the aggregation of thousands of our people, who would have joined him there, fall back 
upon the interior and wait for the Spaniards, in case he should not have felt justified in march- 
ing against the capital. The government could not, at that time, dispose of more than two 
thousand men as a column of operations, without ungarrisoning the most important points and 
giving them to the people. But our boat was taken to the wrong wharf, and having run aground 
before reaching it, our landing, instead of being instantaneous, was delayed for more than an 
hour. The alarm was given, preparations were made for defence, and the town had to be 
taken by force and at great sacrifice of life. Intelligence was sent by couriers to Matanzas, 
and the main object of the enterprise, the surprise of the latter was rendered impossible. On 
leaving Cardenes the Creole grounded again in her shallow harbor. In order to lighten her, 
most of our amunition and part of our provisions were thrown overboard, and even part of our 
force had to be landed on a key, when all other expedients had proved unavailing, which so 
discouraged our troops that they refused to land again, and compilled Gen. Lopez to take them 
into Key West. "When the General started from New Orleans on his last attempt, he is believed 
to have done so with the intention of touching at Jacksonville, in eastern Florida, take the artil- 
lery, arms, and ammunition which I had concentrated there for that purpose, and then land on 
the eastern province of Cuba. Had he by this movement placed himself far from th e focus of 
Concha's resources, and in the midst of a district and population every way favorable to the 
desired result, he would not only have given the Spaniards blows which they could not well 
retrieve, but would have been enabled to sustain himself sufficiently long to allow thousands of 
men arming in several parts of the Union to go to his support. But, deceived by exaggerated 
reports from the island, by the misinformed correspondents of American newspapers, and, above 
all, by emissaries of the Spanish government, among whom are said to have been some 
infamous Cubans — the Arnolds of our time — he abandoned this wise course, and when at Key 
West, steered directly across to Vuelta Abajo. The anxious wish of the wily Concha was thus 
accomplished He had, as he expected, Gen. Lopez at Bahia Honda — only thirty-eight miles 
from Havana, and a point upon which he could, at the shortest notice, pour by sea and by land, 
through the war and coasting steamers, and sailing vessels, and the San Antonio railroad, 
almost the whole garrison of Havana, in addition to the two thousand soldiers ordered to march 
upon him from Pinar del Rio, the capital of Vuelta Abajo. Even the ferry boats of the harbor, 
such is the favorable state of the weather at that season — were available as transports for the 
Spanish troops. The immense force employed against him may be deduced from the fact that 
out of a garrison of over seven thousand men stationed at Havana, only six hundred are said to 



15 

have been present at the funeral of Gen. Enna. It was palpable that Gen. Lopez had been 
foully decoyed. Too great a confidence in others, the result of his generous nature, was alike 
fatal to him and to the success of his expedition. Never counting the enemies he had before 
him, he never suspected those whom he could not see. His own prowess, and that of the heroic 
band of Americans and Cubans who fought by him were unavailing. Surrounded on all sides, 
and completely intercepted from the Creoles, the victories of Las Pozas and Cafetal de Frias, 
by which he placed hors de combat a number of the enemy four times as great as his entire 
force — by thinning his ranks without the possibility of obtaining reinforcements from the coun- 
try — could be productive of no good results. In those'gallant struggles fell Gen. Pragay, the 
distinguished Hungarian, who commanded the left wing of the garrison of Comorn during its 
memorable sally upon the Austrians ; Col. Downman, head of the American infantry under 
Gen. Lopez ; Felipe Gotay, the Alvarado'of the expedition, a Creole commanding an American 
company ; Oberto, a Cuban captain of the Cuban company; Pianos, aid to the commander-in- 
chief; and scores of courageous foreigners and natives, at the same time that Crittenden and 
his fifty victims to Spanish ferocity surrendered up their souls upon the brow of the hill of 
Atares, that their earthly remains might be mangled and desecrated by a Spanish rabble. 
The total want of information with regard to the movements of Gen. Lopez, convinced the 
Creoles in the country and at Havana, at the very time of his victories over the Spaniards, 
that the rumors of his utter destruction, circulated by the latter, were entitled to credit. The 
execution at Havana, of Crittenden and his patty, but served to confirm them in this belief. In 
spite of these adverse circumstances, it is estimated that one hundred and sixty Cubans were 
shot on the roads, in their blind attempt to join the liberating forces wherever they might be 
met. The rage of the elements completed the disasterous issue. Out of ninety-five muskets 
left them, only four or five were serviceable after the gale, which at this juncture, swept over 
Vuelto Abajo. Gen. Lopez then urged the shattered remnant of his Spartan band to seek the 
elemency of the Captain-General, while he, sure of his fate, but determined to meet it, surren- 
dered, not to a Cuban, thank God, as has been falsely represented, but to Castaneda, a native 
of Palma, one of the Canary Islands — a man whom he is said to have generously saved from the 
galleys, when president of the comision militar, and who repaid his kindness by hunting him 
down with bloodhounds. The last words of this great and good man were prophetic, and expres- 
sive of his love of country: "My fate will not change thy destinies; adieu, dear Cuba." A 
monument to his memory, testifying to future generations of the nobleness of his deeds will, with 
the certainty of Divine justice, be erected, ere many years elapse, upon the scene of his heroic 
martyrdom. 

In the foregoing brief review and examination of Cuban affairs, the following points would 
appear to be clearly established : 

1. That Cuba suffers unparalleled oppression. 

2. That she has an undeniable right to revolt. 

3. That her people have done towards effecting it much of what they possibly could do. 

4. That our movements originated in Cuba. 

5. That it was the fault of Spanish despotism that the nucleus of our revolution was ejected 
from the island, and compelled to prosper in the United States. 

6. That the first and largest expedition was raised entirely •with Cuban money. 

7. That it received the countenance of very high officials. 

8. That Cuba had a right to aid from the people of the United States. 

9. That such aid has been sought by the representatives of a respectable political party. 

10. That it was granted by Americans of the highest honor and principle. 

11. That our movements are proven, on Spanish official authority known to the government, 
to have been purely political. 

12. That the assertions contained in Mr. Fillmore's proclamation are, for this reason, worse 
than gratuitous. 

13. That the judicial tribunals of the land have, in every instance, given their verdict to this 
effect. 

14. That the measures pursued for the raising of means are the same as those adopted by all 
other people under the same circumstances. 



16 

15. That movements similar to ours have received the sanction of history. 

16. That it was merely the result of circumstances that Gen. Lopez was not supported by 
the Cubans. 

17. That the Cuban revolution has been, by our efforts, replanted upon its native soil, where 
it now progresses. 

18. That consequently, we have a claim to the support of public opinion, and to the aid of 
the American people, and the moral countenance of their government in any future struggle 
with the tyranny of Spain. 

How this aid is to be granted by either, it would be presumptuous for me to dictate. The 
people have the strict construction of the statute for their chart. Their government has for 
its guide the policy of President Monroe, the true interests of America, and its duties to huma- 
nity, in whose behalf it has become the most potent and visible agent of the Almighty. In 
the hands, then, of a free and generous people, and to the wisdom of a prospective liberal 
American administration, as to the instrument of a just and retributive Providence, we should 
be willing to commend the cause of our own dear land. 

AMBROSIO JOSE GONZALEZ. 

Warrenton Springs, Va., Sep. 1, 1852. 



-ST™ 0F INGRESS 




003 061 183 4 | 




